Cyprus

2003

Some 35,000 Turkish troops are stationed in the
self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), founded
after Turkey invaded the northern half of the Mediterranean island in
1974. The island remains divided into a more prosperous ethnic Greek
sector in the south and an isolated and impoverished ethnic Turkish
sector in the north. Cyprus' capital, Nicosia, is also divided in two,
with one side controlled by the internationally recognized
Greek-Cypriot authorities and the other by the Turkish government.

The U.N. International War Crimes Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in
The Hague (ICTY) ruled to limit compelled testimony from war
correspondents. The decision, announced at the tribunal's Appeals
Chamber, came in response to the appeal by former Washington Post
reporter Jonathan C. Randal, who had been subpoenaed to testify in the
case of former Bosnian-Serb housing minister Radoslav Brdjanin, who is
facing charges of genocide because of his alleged role in the
persecution and expulsion of more than 100,000 non-Serbs during the
Bosnian war. The subpoena against Randal was set aside, and he is no
longer required to testify.

Emboldened by the growing number of U.S. troops in
the country, President Askar Akayev has used the threat of
international terrorism as an excuse to curb political dissent and
suppress the independent and opposition media in Kyrgyzstan. Compliant
courts often issue exorbitant damage awards in politically motivated
libel suits, driving even the country's most prominent newspapers to
the brink of bankruptcy.

Press freedom is generally respected in the United
Kingdom, but CPJ was alarmed by a legal case in which Interbrew, a
Belgium-based brewing group, and the British Financial Services
Authority (FSA), a banking and investment watchdog agency, demanded
that several U.K. media outlets turn over documents that had been
leaked to them. The case threatened to erode the media's ability to
protect sources, and to deter whistle-blowers from talking with the
press.